Latest Accessories

As musicians, we go to extremes to get the best possible sound from our instruments. Don’t think this quest is limited to guitar players. A quick Internet search shows drummers burying their cymbals in the back yard to achieve a darker timbre, or a community theater in California letting anyone in off the street to come play their new grand piano to help log the 100 hours of time needed to properly break it in.

Ernie Ball has announced M-Steel electric guitar strings, a new patent-pending premium line of strings made from a defense grade alloy known as Maraging Steel. The new Ernie Ball M-Steel Slinkys will hit the shelves in mid-summer 2013 and will be available in five gauges: Super, Regular, Hybrid, Power and Skinny Top Heavy Bottom.

D’Addario has introduced XL Nickel Wound Balanced Tension string sets. Responding to consumer demand, D’Addario XL Nickel Wound Balanced Tension sets have been optimized to have a comparable tension string to string allowing for greater dynamic control and a more evenly balanced effort while fretting, bending, strumming and picking on guitar, as well as plucking, slapping and bending on bass.

In January, DiMarzio will release its three new Ionizer 8 pickups, all of which were designed for Animals As Leaders guitarist Tosin Abasi's new signature 8-string Ibanez guitar. The pickups are two years in the making.

The Aero series really blurs the line between a hardshell case and a gig bag. The problem with a hardshell case is the weight and bulkiness, while the problem with a gig bag is the lack of protection. Reunion Blues calls its method of protection Flexoskeleton technology. Unlike most empty gig bags, you cannot fold an Aero case in half.

“Sorry No Beige” was the slogan for Apple’s colorful, all-in-one G3 computer in the late '90s. Today you can order a guitar in just about any color under the sun or mix and match pickguards till the cows come home. But the case ... why does the case have to look so boring? Bullhorn Guitar Cases gives you a blank canvas and the tools to design your own one-of-a-kind case.

The Axsys 1.0 is a US-made, high-quality guitar-seat-and-stand combo. Secondly, it’s pre-assembled with one sheet of three easy directions — with pictures! To get going, all I had to do was remove the safety pin, fold out the back leg, re-apply the safety pin and click the seat in position. To go from seat to guitar stand mode, flip a switch and the seat folds down.

In the video below, Steve Lukather test drives DiMarzio's new Transition humbucking pickups. The pickups were developed by DiMarzio and Lukather for Lukather's LIII Music Man guitar. The pickups also will be available for retail sale from DiMarzio.

If you’re a true pedal freak, chances are you have boutique effects that run at 18 volts, high-current digital units and maybe even a vintage germanium-transistor fuzz box (or an accurate replica of one). Putting all these effects on one pedal board can result in a tangled spaghetti of power cables and unsightly wall warts fighting for space on a bulky power strip. Battery power provides its own set of complications, especially if you like the “brown-out” tones of a fuzz pedal operating on a worn-down carbon nine-volt battery that’s putting out only seven volts or less.

Freedom One is the latest wireless unit/tuner pedal combo from Intellitouch. Unlike most wireless receivers that clutter up your stage rig, the Freedom One’s receiver is tucked nicely into a tuner pedal. The tuner can be used simultaneously with the wireless, or it can be used as a standalone pedal tuner, the same way you’d use any others.